Sgt Christopher David Gelineau  - 10/23/80 - 4/20/2004                                                                                        

Chris was born October 23, 1980 at St Luke's Hospital in Houston, Texas.  In 1982, he moved to Vermont, the home state of his parents, Vicky and John Gelineau.  When his parents were divorced the next year, he lived with his mother.  He was his mother's only child.

Chris had a bright smile and a happy personality.  He laughed often.  He was involved in bowling and video games.

Christmas 1987, he and his mom met Jesse Chicoine.  Chris had asked Jesse, "are you going to be my daddy?".  Jesse's answer, "let's hope it works out that way".  It did.  August 1988, Chris and Vicky moved to Oklahoma where Jesse was stationed at the Tinker Air Force Base.  Vicky and Jesse were married in Sept, 1988.

Even though the family didn't move from base to base, the military influenced their lives.  They would often go to Tinker for shopping and bowling.  Jesse was deployed twice, once to Puerto Rico and then Dessert Storm.  Chris had a gotten a taste of military from an early age.

When Jesse got out of Air Force in 1992, the family moved back to Vermont.  Chris attended Winooski High School and was introduced to computers.  They had an extensive computer lab and he would bring Vicky to school to show her what he was doing. He continued his bowling, and got involved in martial arts.  He went on the road with his Uncle, Paul Gelineau, for competitions and came home with trophies.

The family moved to Starksboro,Vt in 1995.  He attended Mt Abe HS in Bristol where he graduated from in 1999.  As a senior project he created a computer program for the school's maintenance man.  Chris worked during his school summer vacations at his mom's work.  He earned enough money to buy his first car.  He then went to work delivering pizzas after school and on weekends.  He saved enough money to buy a better car.  He won the "Iron Eagle Award" for Student Employee of the year from Mt Abe. He joined the Vermont National Guard in 1998 when he had learned that they helped with college education.

Chris went to University of South Maine in Jan 2000, where he majored in technical information.  He transferred to the Maine National Guard.  He met his future wife, Lavinia Onitiu, at college.  Lavinia was a Romanian transfer student.  They fell in love and were married in Colchester, Vt in 2002 and then married again in Romania in 2003.

Chris was loving, thoughtful, considerate, funny, smart, patient, optimistic and courageous.  He lit up people's days with his smile.

In Lavi Gelineau's words about Chris, "you'll always be my hero, baby, because you lived, not 'cause you died".